This is a small game, so Econ Capitol on the home world is a good idea, but how well does the AI's Super Project placement work on larger maps. I've always found it odd to take some world from the AI, only to find it with say a Tech Capitol and then only one or two labs. Something like the Korath are doing in this game, but since it's such a small game, you play with what you got.

Very good news, can't wait. Am I reading the map right that the Arceans are actually conquering planets? Haven't seen that in a long time, very happy as I like the Arceans & want them to be a challenge.

Has the Iconian AI been updated recently? Playing a metaverse DL game yesterday against Iconians and Arceans, and the Iconians were smart. As in, quite seriously pwning me for two or 3 game years before I broke their momentum. A nice surprise, as when I saw which opponents I'd drawn I was expecting a walk in the park. Also got whipped by the Drengin in last TA game, who have begun using their SDCs a lot more intelligently, mobbing them up with more powerful fighters and zipping between my worlds to prevent me building up defences. The change to their expansion strategy seems to be paying off: at the end of the colonisation phase, they had 7 planets; by about the end of year 2 they had 13, despite being at war with four races. Admittedly most were captured from the Korx, who in 6c are still refusing to build armed ships, but that didn't make it any less scary, or any easier to recapture the planets from them.

@CantinaFly: You can see that its not the civ capital because its population limit is only 6 billion. Also, Brad called it "Arcean main world", not capital, unlike how he named the others. My guess is that this was an example of how the Arceans are finally utilizing the navigation centers.

I just love screen shots, am I the only one that forgets and tries to click on something?

Newp. In Brads post about his messy desktop I tried clicking on the one icon to see the un-truncated filename. Same goes for the Korx/Thalan overhaul thread. I tried to click on the one building to find out what it was. After I thought more of it, it must have been a sub lvl 3 factory/lab. I never really see those buildings as I leap right to the lvl 3 one.

Woho! Go Thalans!!!Now if we can just get them to go the all-factory strat to save them research time on the labs...

Honestly, I find that an all research strategy does wonders for them, since they have huge leaps to make technologically, and the research buildings contribute to developing the L2 and L3 versions. Besides, with a good research base, one can very quickly tech up to L3 factories in a mixed strategy, minimizing the maintainence costs.

I am going to have to have a less positive interpretation of these screens. Some of these planetary layout just don't make sense. The economic capital on the starting world is fine, but especially given that it is the Korx I have to wonder why there aren't any other economic buildings there. The Terran planet has conflicting percentage bonuses, especially with the industrial output on a planet with only two other factories. Also, unless the Innovation Complex was in a particularly useful or necessary position it is odd to have it on a tile in which it recieves no bonuses on a planet on which it recieves no bonuses. The Arcean planet actually seems fine, with the Arceans really needing both economics and military production in the early game and both receiving bonuses from an industrial capital. As for the Drengins, Slaveling Imagination Labs are basically useless. Unless they are going to upgrade them soon then having two and a technological capital seems like a bit of a waste. Actually, these seem to be a larger problem of planetary specialization and proper use of percentage bonuses. The Thalan planet seems fine. Then again, extrapolating general flaws and strengths from six screens may be a bit unreasonable. Also, perhaps my views of planetary specialization and layout are wrong. What difficulty setting was this on, anyway? Or does that affect this part of A.I. behavior?